Publisher DTP Crew

This footage was shot just north of the Golden Gate Bridge on March 28, 2009, between 8:27 pm and 9:40 pm. As part of the Earth Hour celebration, the Golden Gate Transit District decided to turn out the flood lights on the north and south towers of the famous bridge. As luck would have it, DTP producer Christian Einfeldt was speaking by phone with DTP spiritualgodfather Holden Aust that morning. Holden suggested that we go shoot the event that evening. He contacted Rufus Laggren, who drove us up to our look-out point in the Marin Headlands at a spot located just about 1 mile from the north tower, and about 2 miles from the south tower.

A ship sails under the bridge just as the lights go out at 8:30 p.m.. The captain of the ship had obviously heard of this event, and planned his or her ship's arrival into San Francisco Bay accordingly. The western flood lights go off first, followed by the eastern floodlights. This shot shows only the southern tower of the bridge, the tower closest to San Francisco. The lights behind the bridge come from various parts of San Francisco, including the Marina district, Pacific Height, Nob Hill, and some skycrapers from downtown San Francisco.

One hour later, at 9:30 p.m., the bridge staff turns the lights back on, this time turning on both floodlights at once. The lights come on gradually, either because they are so powerful that they need to warm up, or because the staff turns them on slowly for effect. It takes nearly a full minute, it seems, for the lights to reach maximum effect.

The shot of the bridge is dark. This event was the first time that the DTP crew had shot any night footage, so it was an experiment.

Following the shot of the bridge, I turned the camera toward the waxing crescent moon going down over the Pacific Ocean. I wanted to see what effect would be produced by dropping the shutter speed on the camera. It is somewhat interesting to note that the camera becomes sufficiently sensitive to pick up the dark face of the moon as the shutter speed drops.

This footage is our raw rough-cut footage. It lacks transitions, music, special effectsor finish rendering. It is our "source code". Please feel free to rip, mix and burn this footage consistent with our Creative Commons license as disclosed on this page.

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Contact Information Christian Einfeldt, einfeldt at g mail dot com